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Being overwhelmed by the possibilities, I found I didn't know what to take a photo of with my newly understood camera. So I took this shot, to test what sort of close-up I could get. Not bad. Next time I'll try closer.
The shelf is to the right of my TV, in the living room. It stores mainly 1/18 and 1/24 die cast cars and fire trucks on the upper levels, and 1/32 military vehicles below.
Top shelf, L to R. The Ecto 1 from Ghostbusters. This is a really fun, detailed Caddy, complete with all the gizmos inside and out, and a realistic engine under the hood. Five 1/24 sale fire engines next, from around 1919 to 1938. These were really premium die-casts, put out by Yat Min/Signature about three years ago. They were snapped up quickly, even at $50 and up, and have now disappeared from the market mostly. I bought these at half price or less at Wal-Mart, before they were all gone. One even has individual rubber boots in the back!
Middle shelf L to R. A Renault race car of some sort. A Ford GT Mk.II, the sort that ran Ferrari off the road at LeMans in the early 60's. Next to it a Ford GT 40, the road version produced as Ford's "halo" car in the early years of the new century. Then contemporaryAudi and BMW LeMans race cars. Unless I photograph these cars fully opened up, you can't imagine the interior detail of thelast three.
Bottom, L to R. Corner of a German tank-destroyer, an early Sherman tank (before the 75mm gun was installed), a half-track with four .50 cal. machine guns installed as an anti-aircraft measure (can't have been much more than a nuisance to straffing Messerschmidts), and a Hummer. All to scale. They have travelling turrets, opening hatches, and other features. The grey thing that looks like a canoe is a WWII landing craft in a different scale entirely. (1/72) Various anime figures liven up the display. Also visible is a lead cast Jaberwocky.
I'm going to have to take hundreds more pictures if I'm to cover the entire apartment this way!
The shelf is to the right of my TV, in the living room. It stores mainly 1/18 and 1/24 die cast cars and fire trucks on the upper levels, and 1/32 military vehicles below.
Top shelf, L to R. The Ecto 1 from Ghostbusters. This is a really fun, detailed Caddy, complete with all the gizmos inside and out, and a realistic engine under the hood. Five 1/24 sale fire engines next, from around 1919 to 1938. These were really premium die-casts, put out by Yat Min/Signature about three years ago. They were snapped up quickly, even at $50 and up, and have now disappeared from the market mostly. I bought these at half price or less at Wal-Mart, before they were all gone. One even has individual rubber boots in the back!
Middle shelf L to R. A Renault race car of some sort. A Ford GT Mk.II, the sort that ran Ferrari off the road at LeMans in the early 60's. Next to it a Ford GT 40, the road version produced as Ford's "halo" car in the early years of the new century. Then contemporaryAudi and BMW LeMans race cars. Unless I photograph these cars fully opened up, you can't imagine the interior detail of thelast three.
Bottom, L to R. Corner of a German tank-destroyer, an early Sherman tank (before the 75mm gun was installed), a half-track with four .50 cal. machine guns installed as an anti-aircraft measure (can't have been much more than a nuisance to straffing Messerschmidts), and a Hummer. All to scale. They have travelling turrets, opening hatches, and other features. The grey thing that looks like a canoe is a WWII landing craft in a different scale entirely. (1/72) Various anime figures liven up the display. Also visible is a lead cast Jaberwocky.
I'm going to have to take hundreds more pictures if I'm to cover the entire apartment this way!
Category All / All
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Size 1280 x 920px
File Size 289.1 kB
the M16 MGMC (quad .50 on halftrack) was a fairly decent antiaircraft gun, but rarely got to shoot at German planes due to near total US air superiority and a lack of fuel for German planes. The mount was electro-mechanical and fast, and by the mid-war, had an excellent electronic sight.
As bizarre as this sounds, I got to play with one of these about ten years ago at a machinegun shoot, although I didn't get to fire the guns.
As bizarre as this sounds, I got to play with one of these about ten years ago at a machinegun shoot, although I didn't get to fire the guns.
I would imagine the M16 GMC would be very effective if you could hit anything with it. Just as good as an airframe with 4 mgs in fact. But hitting something that whizzes by at just over treetop level must have been just about impossible, even with state of the art hydrolic controls and a good sight. A plane at a thousand feet altitude and a quarter mile distance must have been a much better target.
Well, the trick, of course, is to select a point in front of the airplane you want to hit, and fire until the plane enters that point. The US had excellent procedures for spotting aircraft at a distance and keeping track of them, notifying units by radio as the plane was likely to head their way. It let you slew the guns in the right direction before the plane showed up, too.
Antiaircraft fire can be considered successful if it prevents the plane from making a successful attack, whether the plane is destroyed or not. US units could usually muster a LOT of .50s on AA mounts ( A tank company had 19 of them available, plus two .30s), and at least put enough lead in the air to discourage an attacker. This was one of the few things the US predicted correctly; had there been any Stukas left for US forces to shoot at, they'd have been very vulnerable to massed MG fire.
The British equivalent of the M16 consisted of a manuallly operated mount on the back of a Bedford truck, with eight water-cooled Vickers guns in a 4x2 configuration. The Russians copied it too, and it can be seen on naval mounts. The effective range was shorter, but I'd love to see films of one of those things firing.
Antiaircraft fire can be considered successful if it prevents the plane from making a successful attack, whether the plane is destroyed or not. US units could usually muster a LOT of .50s on AA mounts ( A tank company had 19 of them available, plus two .30s), and at least put enough lead in the air to discourage an attacker. This was one of the few things the US predicted correctly; had there been any Stukas left for US forces to shoot at, they'd have been very vulnerable to massed MG fire.
The British equivalent of the M16 consisted of a manuallly operated mount on the back of a Bedford truck, with eight water-cooled Vickers guns in a 4x2 configuration. The Russians copied it too, and it can be seen on naval mounts. The effective range was shorter, but I'd love to see films of one of those things firing.
Discouraging air attack is pretty much the name of the game. I always used to like the AA armament on WWII era destroyers, and wondered if the switch to AA missles and small numbers of very expensive guns like the Phalanx wasn't a mistake. Once a plane is inside the missle defense perimeter, then what? And how many planes does it take to saturate a Plalanx defense? Oh well, on the other side of the equation, nobody can afford the same number of modern aircraft like Su-37's and F-18's as they could P-51's and Zeros.
Well, figure - Phalanx is mostly for last-ditch missile defense, and has a range of around 2 miles. Sea Sparrow's got a range of around ten miles, and is more dual purpose. SM-1 has a range in excess of 100 nautical miles, and the AWACS systems can see many times that, and satellites can spot enemy movements on the other side of the earth, making for some decent warning. The more tied-in the ships are to the 'tactical network', the more warning they get. That's a more important innovation then the weapons are, for the most part.
American artillery was overwhelming during WWII, the best of the war. There was lots of it, and there was plenty of shells, but all the designs were basically of WWI vintage. The advantage was in tactical radio networks that let just about any unit request artillery support, and do it reasonably quickly. If more fire was needed, additional batteries could be called in on the same target. The Germans didn't have that flexibility of operation - but they could have. It wasn't a technological innovation, it was procedural.
American artillery was overwhelming during WWII, the best of the war. There was lots of it, and there was plenty of shells, but all the designs were basically of WWI vintage. The advantage was in tactical radio networks that let just about any unit request artillery support, and do it reasonably quickly. If more fire was needed, additional batteries could be called in on the same target. The Germans didn't have that flexibility of operation - but they could have. It wasn't a technological innovation, it was procedural.
American advantage in artillery probably was mostly due to organization and numbers. The Germans had a few excellent pieces, and even the British had one or two that were superb in their sphere, like the 25 pounder. But 50 canon will always best 20; and 10 cannon used in coordination will probably get the better of 25 that aren't.
Nobody really likes to talk about it, but WWII was mainly won by having 400,000,000 on our side, and the Germans having at best 100,000,000, many of whom were unwilling slaves. Magnify that by industrial capacity, and then factor in that most of ours couldn't be reached by the enemy, it would have taken a miracle for the Germans to win. There only chance would have been early negotiations, or a lack of will power on the part of the allies. Or manufacturing a couple of dozen atom bombs along with some sort of V3 to deliver them in 1942.
Nobody really likes to talk about it, but WWII was mainly won by having 400,000,000 on our side, and the Germans having at best 100,000,000, many of whom were unwilling slaves. Magnify that by industrial capacity, and then factor in that most of ours couldn't be reached by the enemy, it would have taken a miracle for the Germans to win. There only chance would have been early negotiations, or a lack of will power on the part of the allies. Or manufacturing a couple of dozen atom bombs along with some sort of V3 to deliver them in 1942.
E-Bay crossed my mind, but there was the obstacle of taking photos. Now that I've started playing with my digital camera, E-Bay becomes a possibility. Of course, collectors want the friggin' packaging. I never kept it. What's the point of having a toy you never take out of the box?
I'm not sure my digital camera is able to do the sort of close-up work I need though. You saw what I was able to do, but those toys were up to a foot long, not three inches.
I'm not sure my digital camera is able to do the sort of close-up work I need though. You saw what I was able to do, but those toys were up to a foot long, not three inches.
It all depends on what I want to keep. I had over 700 at one time, and whittled it down to maybe a couple of hundred (not counting non-Mattel stuff of generally higher quality). Most of what I got rid of I gave to my nephews or gave to Mike Kazallah at cost-of-postae. I would still like to rid myself of as many as another hundred, I think.
Mostly 90's stuff. At this point, mainly realistic cars, not the fantasy flapdoodle HW produced in such huge amounts that it contributed materially to my getting sick of them. I'm relying on memory, but I think I'd be mainly trying to cut down on Hot Rods and some racing cars.
Mostly 90's stuff. At this point, mainly realistic cars, not the fantasy flapdoodle HW produced in such huge amounts that it contributed materially to my getting sick of them. I'm relying on memory, but I think I'd be mainly trying to cut down on Hot Rods and some racing cars.
Nice coolection shot there! I've got an extensive 1/43 collection with about 150 cars, but it's mostly stored in cardboard boxes waiting for me to find a nice, protective glassed vitrine to display them. This is a very dusty place and cleaning those little things is quite annoying and I can damage them if I'm not careful.
I would imagine a quad of .50 mg's going through Chinese troops like buckshot through butter... Of course, four mg's carried by some guys would do the same without a $50,000 truck to navigate through the muck, but the US Army must have had a fleet of M16 GMC's built for WWII, so why not use them?
Exactly. and while they'd given out plenty of them through MAP (Military Assistance Program) there was plenty left in storage parks and in active service at the onset. In fact the Maxton Mount is still in use and manufacture, albeit in modified form as the Israeli TCM-20 AA system with 2 20mm cannon replacing the .50 calibers.
The black GT-40 is the 1960's racing platform. The white one is the luxury road car built by Ford in the early year's of the new century.
I try to arrange things in some sort of order, but it isn't easy. Most of my competition cars are in this area, but there are some lesser racing models elsewhere, like a modified Corvette, or the Shelby Cobras. There isn't enough space on this shelf for them all. Also, it would mean breaking up the Corvettes and Shelby's. Some ways of organizing stuff is incompatible with other ways of organizing it, something I realized as a compulsive kid of ten, who could arrange all his comics according to publisher, or type, or age, or whatever, but not all at once.
For instance, I'd like all the Studebakers in one place. But that would mean breaking up the 50's and 60's cars.
I do the best I can. It would be nice to have the time to try again though. I know I could do better.
I try to arrange things in some sort of order, but it isn't easy. Most of my competition cars are in this area, but there are some lesser racing models elsewhere, like a modified Corvette, or the Shelby Cobras. There isn't enough space on this shelf for them all. Also, it would mean breaking up the Corvettes and Shelby's. Some ways of organizing stuff is incompatible with other ways of organizing it, something I realized as a compulsive kid of ten, who could arrange all his comics according to publisher, or type, or age, or whatever, but not all at once.
For instance, I'd like all the Studebakers in one place. But that would mean breaking up the 50's and 60's cars.
I do the best I can. It would be nice to have the time to try again though. I know I could do better.
That could be. It is certainly one of the iconic supercars. Pity Ford stopped making them a couple of years ago, replacing it with a new Sheby Mustang Cobra as their halo car. aA due respect to Carrol Shelby's Mustangs, but you can't shade no Ferrari's nor Lamborghinis with a mere pony car.
What, no Monkees Mobile? Not being a big fan of southern culture, nor the Confederacy, I think if I had a General Lee, I'd drill tiny bullet holes through the doors and trunk, and maybe work up some way to simulate gasoline leaking from the tank. I have a number of Cadillacs, though. There are so many of them that I suspect I have only a small sample. I don't have 1962 model, for instance, though it's considered a classic.
I like that it's a Dodge Charger, anyway. Awesome car, in its day. I have one in 1/18 that's metallic purple, with white stripes and mag wheels. Mattell doesn't do a very good job with 1/18 most of the time, but it looks fairly snazzy if you don't look too closely -- and it's before street culture started to load custom cars down with hi-fi equipment, flatscreen TVs, hydrolic nonsense, huge chrome rims and ribbon tires. Have you found the other cars in my collection among my photos yet?
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